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Spiritual Change.-Its Importance.-To be divested of all needless Mys-
tery.-Reality of such Change.-How to be proved.—Illustrated by

PART FIRST.

THE HEART IN ITS STATE BY

NATURE.

THE HEART, &c.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HEART.

"Who can know it "

"Ye know not what spirit ye are of."
"Examine yourselves."

CAN the heart be known by its possessor? by him whose spiritual being, whose identity and accountability it forms? In other words, can it be known by itself? This is an important question. The interrogative exclamation of the prophet, prefixed to this chapter, seems to assert the negative in the strongest possible manner. The declaration of our Lord to his zealous but vindictive disciples shows that many do not know their own hearts, nor the motives under which they speak and act. The. exhortation of the apostle to a careful examination of self proceeds upon the same presumption; and facts daily show that a vast majority of mankind know as little of their own heart as though it belonged not to them; as little as they do of the unexplored and most remote regions of the earth, the mere names and positions of which they have only heard. We often hear the expression, that such or such men "have no heart-no soul;" and an

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